Eponymous ex-German ship here

The Ellerman Line steamer City of Dunedin arrived here yesterday morning from New York via Panama, Auckland, Wellington, Lyttelton and Timaru, and berthed at the Birch street wharf to discharge general cargo and 17,000 cases of oil. She is attracting some attention as she is an ex-German liner, and was formerly known as the Porta. The vessel, which is a fine type of cargo carrier, is fitted with the latest devices for the rapid working of cargo. A practically new ship, she was built in 1917 by the Bremer-Vulcan shipbuilding company at Vegesack, Germany. Following the Armistice she was handed over to the Imperial Government and purchased by her owners — the Ellerman Lines, Liverpool. Her first voyage to the dominion, the City of Dunedin is under the command of Captain Laidlay. She has four tall masts, and is fitted with four Samson posts to facilitate the rapid working of cargo. Two of these posts are in front of the lofty bridge and the remaining two in the bow. When near the bend on her way up the Lower Harbour to berth at Dunedin her steering gear jammed, and as there was a possibility of her getting out of the channel she was anchored until the trouble was overcome. Her engineers worked quickly and she berthed about an hour later. She is to leave tomorrow for Melbourne and Sydney where she will complete discharge.

Partakers of the divine nature

The fortieth annual conference of the New Zealand Baptist Union and Missionary Society was opened in the Hanover Street Church yesterday.

At 7.30pm the church was crowded for service, at which the president delivered his address. Mr Hinton took as the keynote of his remarks "The Preeminence of the Spiritual." By natural birth they were made partakers of ordinary human nature, and were defined in the Scripture as "Natural." By their new birth, or conversion, they were made partakers of the divine nature and became the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, or "Spiritual." The ideals of the natural man, however lofty and beautiful, were the outcome of the human, even though influenced by Christian thought and sentiment, while those of the Christian should be the direct result of the operations of the Spirit of God. The essentially active nature of man found many outlets. There were, unfortunately, those whose lives were lived in sin. Others again had enshrined the goddess of Pleasure in their hearts and, with scarce a passing thought as to the needs of others, followed her dictates, hesitating only when the moral borderland was reached. Still others had made wealth their god, and the accumulation of this, either in money or kind, absorbed all their energies, even sacrificing the bodies and souls of others at its shrine. Thank God, the Christian conscience was awakening and demanded the applications of ideals to service.

Tours to Queenstown and Wanaka

The scheme of scene motor tours in the vicinity of Dunedin recently got going by the Otago Taxi Owners’ Association has already met with an encouraging response, which there is every reason to believe will steadily increase as the season advances. It is indeed surprising that some such organised effort to make the unrivalled beauties of this district easily accessible to sightseers was not long ago undertaken. An ambitious and attractive scheme planned out by the association for the coming holiday season is a seven-day motor trip to Queenstown and Pembroke, allowing two full days at Queenstown and viewing almost the whole of the goldfields and Otago Central districts on route. The distance covered will be about 503 miles, for which it is proposed to ask a single fare of 11 pounds 5 shillings. — ODT, 13.10.1922